How Choose a topic of interest, spend a little time researching it, have a discussion then publish the notes.

Why The main benefits are the fostering of a greater understanding of the world before we die and hopefully, to prompt further thought and discussion from our listeners.

The topic we will be discussing in this episode is Video Gaming

Topic Overview

Wherever electricity can be found, so too the means to play video games. Worldwide youth culture has a sizable slice of it's collective time absorbed by the competitive pixel shuffling offered up on a rapidly growing spectrum of hardware. From simulation to Space Invaders, arcade hall cabinets to massively multiplayer fantasy epics enjoyable from the comfort of one's own broadband connection—games and gamers are spoiled for choice. A growth industry almost without compare, what is the state of the art and how far has it come? Who are the gamers? What of the future - will we be tapping in our initials on our deathbeds?

Off-topic

What we’re not talking about

Red pandas

Talking Points

Each bullet is a talking point. Sub-bullets are topics that may or may not be covered. Usage: Read the bullet and sub-bullets then talk about some or all sub-bullets.

Eras

70s: Things like Pong and Space Invaders arcade games. Not much in the home.

80s: Home gaming booming due to affordable consoles and home computers like the Commodore Amiga and Cray ST.

90s: Same as the 80s but with more powerful hardware, Getting more immersive.

2000s: The internet baby, Woo-hoo!

Hardware

Nintendo: Wii, 64, NES/SNES, DS, Gameboy, Virtualboy

Atari: 2600 and successors

Magnavox odyssey

Commodore: Vic20, C64, 128, Amiga

Sinclair: Spectrum 48K, QL

BBC: Micro, Acorn, Archimides, ARM, Electron

Sony

Microsoft

Sega

Platforms

PC

Mobile phones

Steam

Oculus Rift

Emulators

MAME

Game styles

2D/3D Platformer

1st person shooter

Simulation

Click adventure

God games

Programming

Pixels, voxels, vector

Collision detection

Engines: polygons, physics

Games of note

Elite

Tetris of course!

Space invaders, Pac Man

Myst

Doom, Castle Wolfenstein, Halflife

Minecraft

Super Mario Bros. Super Mario 64

Flappy bird, Angry Birds

Candy Crush

Farmville

Portal

Culture

Bartle test

Geekdom

Twitch

Steam

Competitions

YouTube celebrities

PewDiePie

LAN parties

Cosplay?

Gamergate

Yawn

Magnavox Odyssey (1972) at the National Video Game Arcade, Nottingham

C64 Jet Set Willy with code card

Driveclub, PS4 2014

Glossary

Terminology specific to the topic

Frag Killed in a 1st person shooter

Gib When you’ve been killed in a 1st person shooter. The last thing you see is chunks of your avatar’s body. ‘I got gibbed by a 12 year old.’

Platformer Side scrolling format where your avatar typically runs and leaps between different game elements ‘platforms’

Wrap Up

Details about site, contacts, next show: Comedy

Outro music choice - something open source or out of copyright so we don’t get sued